BMC bans gatherings, darshan in Ganesh pandals amid 3rd Covid wave fear in Mumbai

BMC has limited the gathering of people at Ganesh pandal during darshan and immersion as fear of 3rd Covid wave looms

Amid fear of a third Covid-19 wave, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has banned any type of procession or gathering and physical darshan of devotees inside Ganesh pandals. The civic body has instead asked the mandals to arrange for online darshan.

BMC has asked Ganesh mandals to arrange for online darshan to prevent gathering of people ahead of the anticipated 3rd Covid wave. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

The BMC has limited the gathering of people during immersion of the idol to not more than 10 people in the case of Ganesh mandals and not more than five people for those who are taking the idol home.

The BMC has ruled that those residing in sealed buildings have to make their own arrangement for immersion inside their house and those mandals inside containment zones have to arrange for immersion inside the pandals or postpone the immersion.

The civic body has appealed that those who take part in immersion should preferably be fully vaccinated. The same cap is kept for the arrival procession of the Ganesh festival on Friday. The BMC has also appealed that environment-friendly Ganesh idols at home should be immersed in a bucket or drum, if possible. The BMC has also appealed to citizens to use artificial ponds for immersion and to perform aarti before reaching the site of immersion. The BMC in a statement said, “Instead of the traditional method of performing aarti at the site of immersion, the aarti should be performed from the start point at mandals or inside the home to ensure minimum time taken at immersion site.” The BMC has also appealed to citizens to follow all Covid-19 protocols like maintaining social distance, wearing a mask etc.”

Further, the civic body has also asked Ganesh mandals to not stop their vehicle anywhere during immersion and to drop the idol at collection centres of BMC. The officials will do immersion in the sea.

An appeal is also made to Ganesh mandals to give priority to the immersion of idols at the nearest artificial immersion site, rather than going to the sea.

The BMC further said, “Ganesh mandals should not take the vehicle carrying the idol from the mandap to the immersion site at a very slow speed like a procession but should take the vehicle to the immersion site at a normal speed so as not to injure the idol in the vehicle. It is strictly forbidden to stop the vehicle during immersion and allow devotees to take darshan/ worship of Ganesha idol on the roads.”

Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar on Tuesday appealed that citizen should adopt the concept of ‘My house, My Bappa’ wherein one celebrates the Ganesh festival inside their homes only. Pednekar told news agency ANI, “Citizens should celebrate festivals at their home only and even mandals should ensure that they do not gather inside the pandal. We also need to take all precautions considering third wave is not going to come but it is already there.”

The BMC has maintained that the third wave has not yet arrived, and the next 30 days will be crucial.

Further, children and senior citizens have been advised to stay away from the immersion site.

Meanwhile, there are a total of 73 natural immersion sites in Mumbai and further 173 artificial sites at 173 locations. The BMC will also set up an immersion desk where citizens can keep their idols at artificial ponds. Every year, over 10,000 Ganesh mandals celebrate the festival and over 150,000 lakh homes take the idols to their home. However, since the past two years, the celebrations have been toned down owing to the pandemic.